Orphaned Heritage

The spot where the most famous manhunt in United States history came to a bloody end languishes in the litter-strewn median of a four-lane highway. There are no physical traces left of the Garrett farmhouse, where John Wilkes Booth died, and few historic footprints to be found at all in this unlikely place, a common right-of-way. The Garrett place is one of scores of sites on the East Coast that society cast aside, places of historic value left to the natural world as orphans of the American landscape. Orphaned Heritage: The East Coast's Disappearing History tells the story of the Atlantic seaboard's historic castaways and explores what we can learn from the ruin.